A Critique of Apple's PR Response To Steve Jobs' Health Issues
On the face of it Apple, maker of elegant, state-of-the-art computers, and the transformative iPhone and iPod, has nothing in common with North Korea, the most repressive and backward totalitarian state on the planet. And on first glance, Apple's innovative spark plug of a CEO, Steve Jobs, has nothing in common with North Korea's tyrannical dictator Kim Jong-Il. But last year when both Jobs and Kim had health problems, the opaque responses of Apple's public relations department and North Korea's propaganda ministry were surprisingly similar.
Lewes, Delaware (PRWEB) May 6, 2009
On the face of it Apple, maker of elegant, state-of-the-art computers, and the transformative iPhone and iPod, has nothing in common with North Korea, the most repressive and backward totalitarian state on the planet.
And on first glance, Apple's innovative spark plug of a CEO, Steve Jobs, has nothing in common with North Korea's tyrannical dictator Kim Jong-Il. But last year when both Jobs and Kim had health problems, the opaque responses of Apple's public relations department and North Korea's propaganda ministry were surprisingly similar.
That's one conclusion in an essay by George Merlis on the Harvard Business Services blog, an online business blog created by Harvard Business Services (http://www. delawareinc. com), a leading Delaware registered agent and expert in incorporating. Merlis, an alumnus of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism has both print and major television credits in his resume. As a former investigative producer for ABC News and later executive producer of "Good Morning America," "The CBS Morning News," "The Dick Cavett Show," and "Entertainment Tonight," he has been nominated for nine national Emmy awards and won one. George now media trains business, government and nonprofit sector clients through his company, Experience Media Consulting. He is also author of the book, "How to Master the Media," and writes a weekly column for the Harvard Business Services Blog (http://blog. delawareinc. com).
In his essay on Apple's public relations response to its CEO's illness Merlis writes, "Apple products define cool and cutting edge" but he faults Apple's "often contradictory and opaque handling of Jobs' health issues" and compares it to "the North Korean government's communications about Kim Jong-Il's August, 2008 stroke." Steve Jobs is scheduled to return to Apple at the end of June after a six-month leave of absence. But the response of Peter Oppenheimer, Apple CFO, to the question of whether that would happen was, Merlis writes, "more instructive for what he didn't say than what he did say: "We look forward to Steve returning to Apple at the end of June." Merlis concludes: "Anyone see the word, 'Yes' in that answer? I thought not."
For the full essay and for more information on incorporating in Delaware, visit: http://blog. delawareinc. com (http://blog. delawareinc. com)
For Press Inquiries please contact: Rick Bell, Chairman and CEO of Harvard Business Services
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